Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 8:08 AM
Subject: Asia - Day 4
Hong Kong is really an interesting place. There are huge buildings, a million small storefront shops, people trying hard to sell you anything and everything – great fun,
My first order of business was to drop off my passport, a recent photo, and my business card with the hotel concierge. These will be picked up by a travel agent who will take them to the Chinese consulate to get my visa. I have requested a multiple entry visa which would allow me to stay in Hong Kong longer – something I really want to do. Leaving my passport with strangers is really scary – I hope all goes well! I met Nicholas this morning in the hotel lobby. He is a native of Hong Kong, around my age and has a similar work background. We walked to the ferry terminal, which is about 8 blocks from the hotel. Like Singapore, the humidity here is very high and I am perspiring alarmingly with little effort – Nicholas looks worried about me and I assure him I that it is much drier and cooler where I come from. They Kowloon Ferry Terminal is large and modern. You can ride to the main island of Hong Kong, to Mainland China, to Macau, and maybe more. My destination will be Shekou, about a 1-hour boat ride. I got my ticket, which cost $110 HK, around $15 US. We then walked around 4 blocks to a subway station where we would ride the train to our Hong Kong office. The train was crowded at times, but not unpleasant. It reminded me of the subway in Chicago. It was rush hour while we were riding. Everyone seems very young. According to Nicholas, many people have come from Mainland China to work in Hong Kong since the city was given back to China in 1997. These immigrants from the mainland don’t generally have the English language skills that the Hong Kong natives possess.
Our Hong Kong office is on the 23rd floor of a 30 story tower mixed among a group of similar buildings not far from the harbor, but around 10 miles from Kowloon. The area surrounding the harbor is mountainous, and this group of buildings is packed into the hillside. I met for a few hours with Nicholas, Michael, and CK – the office director. Michael and Nicholas suggested we go to lunch and asked me what I wanted. I suggested Chinese and they surprisingly new of a good place nearby. We had Dim Sum, which are a series of appetizer like dishes. Michael ordered. The menu was completely in Chinese and there were literally hundreds of possible selections. To be honest, with the exception or some roast duck, I really have no idea what I was eating. Some of it was explained to me, other dishes they did not know the English words for. All of it was very tasty and we washed it down with lots of green tea. They left two tea pots on the table, one with the tea leaves in it, and the other with hot water. The idea is to blend the two to get a strength of your liking. I was placed in the “seat of honor” being the guest. The waitress did not catch this arrangement at first and started to pour tea for Nicholas. Then she noticed that I was western and must be their guest, so she stopped herself and served me first.
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| View from the Hong Kong office |
Table manners here are different in many ways. As the honored guest, I am expected to start eating first. We ate with chop sticks (and I didn’t even wind up wearing my food!) and had spoons for serving. These was a small brass holder for the spoon and chopsticks and this is where you are supposed to place them when you are not using them – it is impolite to place them on your place. It is also bad manners to allow the ends of the chopsticks to enter your mouth. This makes using them much more difficult. I must have looked pretty amusing. When we finished all 7 or 8 courses, I was allowed to pay for the meal. This seems backwards but it didn’t matter. The bill came to around $30 US for all three of us.
After lunch I said my goodbyes to the office personnel and got a taxi back to Kowloon (Nicholas told the driver in Cantonese where to take me). After I got back to the hotel, I changed into some shorts and a t-shirt, grabbed my camera, and headed out to explore the neighborhood. Kowloon looks like a really bad ghetto because the buildings are largely poured concrete, and most look like they needed repainting 40 years ago. The ground floor is all small restaurants where they usually cook right behind the front window, tailor shops which are all run by Indians, shops that sell everything from electronics to silks, music, carvings, you name it- you can buy it here. Someone will also try and talk you into a foot massage (reflexology) about every 20 yards. The Indian tailors apparently prey on tourists, which I undoubtedly look like the poster child for, and every one tries the same technique to get you into his shop. The conversation goes something like this:
Him
“Hey sir, sir, you need a tailored suit
Me
“No”.
Him
“You won’t believe the prices, buy one second is free!”
Me
“No, I have all the suits I need”
Him
“But look at quality, please take my card
Me
“No thanks”
Him
“Take card please, These are best in town”
Me
Say nothing and keep walking.
I literally replayed this same scene around 30 times within 6 blocks, I learned to scan ahead for Indian men, and then just avoid acknowledging them altogether. They still gave their whole pitch, just remove my lines and you get the picture. There are also plenty of people trying to sell you massages that go well beyond the feet. If you ever need a hooker and a new suit, this is most definitely the place.
I am attaching some more pictures from today. The first is the view from my current hotel room. Quite a contrast from the one in Singapore!
By the way, they gave me a multi entry visa so I can stay in Hong Kong. Maybe I will buy a suit.
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